


ninth life

by hihigh (girlgroup)



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Post-Canon, The tags make it seem worse than it is, This is a fluff fic, she comes back guys, some bfs bonding through near death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26862418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlgroup/pseuds/hihigh
Summary: "Catra? Why are you smiling?" Bow tries cautiously, and Catra remembers her default smile is an evil grin."Can't a girl just be happy?""You just got cut up, died, and came back. Why would you be happy?"
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 298





	ninth life

**Author's Note:**

> found this in my drafts from july and decided to post it even though im not all that into shera anymore  
> tw blood, injury, death

It's just a fuel run, at first.

Darla needs slight repairs on her energy readings, Bow explains, and this empty planet is known for being chock full of pink crystals. They'll be in and out in half a day, leaving just enough time to speed to their meeting with the leaders of a nearby world.

It's an amazingly bad plan. Unfortunately, Catra's ability to parse out bad plans from good ones has been declining rapidly since she joined the rebels, and this is just another instance.

At first, when the cave starts shaking, Catra thinks it's just an earthquake. The others must think so too, because Adora says _not again!_ and Bow and Glimmer groan in unison.

Glimmer's in the middle of explaining how stopping for fuel recruited the Star Siblings and thus indirectly sourced the off-world rebel movement when this worm-like beast bursts out of the tunnel system, blocking their way.

It's sort of a blur. "Run!" Catra yells. They have just about enough fuel to land on a nearby planet, and she's already planning their explanation to the leaders when she notices they're missing a person.

"Where's Adora?" Bow yells.

She stayed back for the fuel. Of course she did. Catra has no idea what she was expecting.

The three of them sprint all the way back to see Adora running towards them, holding her misshapen bag to her chest.

"For the honor," Adora starts to yell, but before she can finish her sentence she's slammed to the ground by one of those cave monsters. The fuel tumbles out of her bag and clatters across the floor, and Adora dives at it, right in the line of fire.

Catra thinks - she doesn't know what she's thinking. She thinks Adora might die if she doesn't go help her right now, and so she does, in the self-sacrificing way she's always berating Adora for.

She really wishes she had more lives under her belt than this one, but even still she launches herself at the tube-like creature without pause, digs her claws into the soft skin in between its plates of metal. The thing tries to shake her off, but she just slides to its front, biting a gaping line down its soft underbelly. Her mouth drips with its foul tasting green blood as she plunges a fist into its beating chest.

"Catra? What are you--" Adora shakes her head and raises her hand to the air, presumably to summon She-ra. This time, Catra's tossed to the ground before she can get the words out, and she runs towards her in a single minded panic.

_Idiot!_ Catra thinks, less than fondly. _Am I fuel to her? She's gonna get herself killed!_ The beast-worm is full on charging now, all of Bow's arrows are deflecting off its hard shell, and She-ra is nowhere to be seen.

"Sparkles, a little help?" Catra screams into her earpiece. She tries to scramble backwards, but her ankle aches with pain whenever she moves it and her legs feel like jelly. So much for always landing on her feet.

"I can't! There's no magic on this planet!" Glimmer yells back. "Just hold tight, Catra, I'm getting Darla over here!"

The last thing Catra remembers is the beast-worm slashing its sharp tooth through the gap between her ribs. She gasps at just how visceral the pain is, and by the time she hears Adora’s panicked _for the honor of Grayskull!_ her vision is already going out.

There’s a familiar turn of her stomach that signifies a reset. Which shouldn’t be possible. Catra counts her lives, and she’s at -1 right now, but before she can think about it any longer everything goes black.

Catra wakes with She-ra’s sword pointed at her. She yelps and flinches backwards, but even her magicat physiology hasn’t quite healed the wound in her chest. The tender scarring tears open again in some places, and the front of her shirt goes hot with blood.

_Twice in one day?_ Catra thinks with dismay as her arms start to give out behind her. She’d rather not - for one, she’s still not clear on how she survived that.

“Catra!” Adora yells, pulling her up roughly. For a terrifying second, Catra thinks maybe her and Adora are enemies again, and their future was just a half-dreamed death hallucination. Then, she registers Adora’s frantic movements for worry and Sparkles and Arrow Boy's teary eyes for fear.

Catra coughs, presses her fingers to the scar on her chest. Her hand comes away red and shining, and she stares at it with a kind of morbid curiosity. This is by far the most grisly death she’s experienced yet.

“Catra?” Adora breathes, and turns them so that their fronts are pressed together in a painful hug. “You were - you were dead, I saw you, you didn’t have a pulse! How... I hadn't even healed you yet..."

Catra carefully extracts herself from Adora’s arms, grabs her wrists gently. Every cell in her body screams in protest. “You seriously don’t know?”

Glimmer frowns. “Know what?”

“That I have nine lives,” Catra says, in a _duh_ voice. It doesn’t come out as flat as she means it to, with how her words tremble in pain. “How did you guys think I kept evading you? I should’ve burned through my last one at Prime’s, now that I think of it, but I just assumed it was a She-ra revival thing.”

“Oh,” Adora says, and her face shines with relief and tears. “Oh.” Catra feels herself getting pulled into another hug, this time with Glimmer and Bow against her back. It's strange, letting herself being embraced. All their tears mingle in the space between them, and that's strange, too; letting herself be cared.

“This is... nice, guys, but I’m still bleeding everywhere,” Catra wheezes into Adora’s shoulder after a moment, when the pain spikes again.

“Of course!” Adora stammers. “I’ll—“

“Glimmer and I will get the salve and bandages,” Bow says with a pointed glance at Adora. “Save your energy, okay? Catra’ll be fine.”

Adora opens her mouth to protest, but Catra gently cuts her off.

“Arrow Boy’s right. I’m already feeling better, and I don’t want you to waste your... She-ra... magic battery. I know it makes you super tired after you do that, and you have a big few days ahead of you."

“Wouldn’t be a waste,” Adora mumbles weakly, but even so her form drops a few feet in a blinding flash of light. She grips Catra’s jacket with a newfound urgency and feels blindly u her arm, like she's making sure she's there.

Bow and Glimmer walk off, and when the door seals Adora puts Catra at an arm’s length again. She looks guilty and tired at once.

“What were you thinking, running back in there all by yourself?” Adora croaks. Catra blinks. It sure feels weird to be on the other side of this conversation.

“I wasn’t by myself. Bow and Glimmer were there, even if they weren't fighting at first. You were there too, losing steam. I of all people can tell know how you look when you're getting tired out,” Catra says, and Adora’s face flushes a deep red. “You can’t keep doing this. Can't keep throwing yourself in harm’s way. We didn’t need the fuel that bad.”

“Catra,” Adora starts again, sounding more pained than anything. “I—“

“Don’t even try and give me that ‘I’m the only one that can do this! It was for the good of the team!’ speech,” Catra interrupts. Adora looks offended but keeps her mouth shut. “You’re not, okay? You have all of us. I think I just proved that pretty well.”

Adora’s brows knit. “By almost - by dying? How are you not freaking out more? You _died_ , and it was my fault."

“It's like the eleventh time. I'm used to it," Catra says, ignoring Adora's stricken expression. "Besides, that's not my point. I had your back, Adora. I knew I was going to be fine. If it weren’t for me, you would’ve ended up with a fang through the chest instead. I’m doing much better now.” It’s only sort of a lie.

"I hate seeing you hurt. I hate watching the people I love risk themselves for me. I hate watching _you_ risk yourself for me," Adora chokes out.

"Welcome to the club," Catra responds drily. She tries to wipe one of Adora's tears away, only it comes out as more of a caress.

Adora's eyes dart between the small cuts on Catra’s body slowly stitching themselves together, her chest, face, and back again. After a while, she smiles weakly. “I guess you being able to argue back is a testament to how you're healing, huh?”

"Death can't stop me from bickering," Catra laughs. It hurts her a little.

"You should be more careful," Adora says. "We. We should be more careful. Just... tell me this won't happen again?"

Catra nods, lets her forehead fall against Adora's and pecks her quick on the lips. "This won't happen again. Even though I can't permanently die right now and you're She-ra."

(Catra's secretly grateful Adora didn't make her promise. She's not sure if she would have been able to.)

Adora gives a wet laugh and presses their lips together again, more for comfort than anything else. Her fingers play with the short patch of fur growing out over the scar of Prime's chip absentmindedly.

Catra hums and moves to sit in Adora's lap, still kissing her, when Glimmer and Bow burst into the room.

"We got the - oh-kay!" Bow exclaims. "I'm not looking!"

"We leave you alone for five minutes and you start doing this?" Glimmer reprimands, but the relief in her voice is clear and heavy.

"To be continued," Catra says, and pushes herself away from Adora with a wince. "Do you need me to take my shirt off?

Bow, the self-appointed doctor of the group, nods and reaches for the bottom of her top. "This okay? I don't want you to strain yourself by trying to take it off yourself." He glances around the room, eyes landing on Adora and Glimmer. "Do you want them to leave?"

"Adora can stay, obviously. Nothing she hasn't seen before," Catra snorts.

"I didn't need to know that," Glimmer groans, and starts getting up.

"Wait. You can stay, too." Everyone in the room turns to Catra, and she feels herself flush at the attention. "Woah. I just meant, since everyone else is gonna be here anyway, it'd be weird to make Glimmer just wait alone outside. Plus, it's not like we don't change in front of each other all the time. And... maybe I want you guys all here."

"Aw! You're opening up!" Bow coos.

"Literally, if you don't get on with it," Catra responds, and motions to her chest. She's starting to feel a little woozy from the blood loss, and she leans her head back on Adora's shoulder.

Bow starts reaching for Catra, but Adora silently grabs his wrist and puts it down at his side. Her hands meet Catra's shirt instead.

It's so wet with blood it gets peeled off more than it gets taken off of her, and her fur is a matted, red smear underneath it. Adora winces with guilt runs her fingers against the closed portions of the scar, making Catra shiver.

Bow takes out his magnifying glass arrow and examines the cut with a thoughtful expression. "Hm..."

"You kept that stupid thing?" Catra cackles, even though it makes her chest wound hurt a little more. Some things are worth it.

"It's useful!" Bow cries out. "Anyway, the cut's not infected yet, but I'll still have to clean and stitch it. Unfortunately, we ran out of anesthesia when Adora broke her leg three planets ago."

"Ugh!" Catra groans. "Just give me some catnip, it'll feel the same."

"I'm not Perfuma! I can't just... produce catnip," Boe sputters.

Adora looks concerned. "Is that what you're doing during Friday meditations?" she mumbles into Catra's hair.

"Ugh," Catra repeats, ignoring Adora entirely. "Whatever, just get on with it."

"You're really channeling Mermista right now," Glimmer comments.

"Sorry I'm not too enthusiastic about being stitched together by a man whose idol works with more robots on a daily basis than human beings."

Bow winces sympathetically. "Sorry about that. But, you know, we made a point about it just being the four of us this trip. I don't think we'd anticipated just how many injuries there would be."

"Because things are always so easy for us, aren't they?" Catra says, then pauses. "Sorry. Sorry. I know you're just trying your best."

"It's okay," Bow responds gently. Too nice. "Come on, I'm going to clean it. You might want to hold Adora's hand for this part." He dabs a towel in some clear liquid and brings it to the rawest parts of Catra's wound.

"I'm not a baby," Catra hisses, half in pain and half in indignation, but she tangles her fingers with Adora's anyway. She can feel Adora's smile against the bare of her neck, and she flushes a little at the newness of it.

"Done," Bow says, after a while. "Here comes the hard part. I'm gonna start stitching now, okay?"

He stabs the needle in with no further hesitation, and Catra yells.

"Fuck," Catra says, and turns her face so her nose is pressed against Adora's neck. She has to put conscious effort into keeping her claws sheathed.

"Crap, Catra, my hand," Adora whispers anyway. She must be gripping it too hard.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," Catra mumbles, and relaxes as much as possible. Adora rubs a calming thumb against her knuckles and twines her fingers through Catra's puffed out tail, which calms her more than she'd like the admit.

The next few minutes pass in a haze of hurt and Bow trying to make things better by rambling mindlessly about what he's doing. Catra would never tell him, but it does help, focusing on the timber of his voice, Adora's winding hands, Glimmer's occasional banter.

Bow sits back and wipes a bead of sweat from his forehead, once he's sure his stitches are stable. "That's all for now."

"Oh thank fuck," Catra breathes, making a gimme motion with her hands. "Salve, please."

"I still don't get why I couldn't just heal her," Adora complains while Catra eagerly spreads the lotion over her chest and stomach.

"It's too draining, it won't help all that much since the internal damage is compensated for, and we need She-ra to meet with the diplomats at Planet AE127-X tomorrow," Glimmer recites.

"Hah! You spent a lot of time convincing her when I wasn't around, didn't you?" Catra crows. "A Queen, through and through."

"How do you make compliments sound like bad things?"

"A lifetime of practice," Catra sighs.

Glimmer rolls her eyes but smiles. "Come here, I'm going to wrap you up. Etheria knows we can't trust Butterfingers over there."

"Hey!" Adora exclaims as Catra barks out a laugh. "This isn't what I meant when I said I wanted you two to get along."

"We're friends now, too late for you to take it back," Glimmer says, sticking her tongue out. The words bounce around in Catra's chest as Glimmer moves on from her waist bandage to her chest bandage. _We're friends now. We're friends now. We're friends now._

"Catra? Why are you smiling?" Bow tries cautiously, and Catra remembers her default smile is an evil grin.

"Can't a girl just be happy?"

"You just got cut up, died, and came back. Why would you be happy?" Glimmer says, and which is. A very true point. Even Adora nods along. But she just is, even if she can't track why, and she can articulate it even less.

"You guys are always on my case about being more cheerful, and now that I am, you wanna question why?" is what Catra settles with.

"No, you're right, sorry," Adora says with a grin, passing her a loose white tee with the Horde sigil cut out the back.

"Do the bandages feel good?" Glimmer asks. Catra's suddenly aware everyone is staring at her with concern and care. Adora, who finished her fight and carried her onto the ship. Bow, who cleaned her cut and stitched her up. Glimmer, who distracted her and dressed her wound. She's suddenly overcome with another swell of emotion, and she bites her lip to keep from tearing up.

"Feels great," Catra manages to choke out. Dammit. Why can't she speak? "Thanks, you guys. For being there, and helping me. Glimmer. Bow."

The two are so shocked they don't respond. Catra herself can't remember the last time she called them by their real names.

The silence is sort of grating. Catra tugs on her shirt, willing her red face to go away, and coughs. "Fucked up that I'm not tired after all of that. It's gotta be around 0200 already."

Glimmer glances around. "Do you guys want to... have a sleepover?"

Catra's ears involuntarily perk up. Dammit. That's the one ritual of Best Friends Squad initiation she hasn't cleared.

"Sounds good to me," Bow says, and Adora quietly murmurs in consent. All eyes turn to Catra.

"Yeah. Okay," she says, and she lets herself get led into Glimmer's room. The bed isn't all that big, and the four of them barely fit on it, but Catra would be lying if she said she didn't have the best night of sleep since they got in space that night.

 _There's nothing for me in Etheria_ , Catra said months ago in Horde Prime's ship. She wakes up healed, arms wrapped around Adora, back pressed against Bow, and tail flicking against Glimmer's wrist, and she finally knows it was never true.


End file.
